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No boards, no let up
THE GOVERNMENT will not let companies slip back into the bad old days of inefficient training and widespread poaching if industrial training boards are wound up, Junior Employment Minister Peter Morrison warned last week.
He told a Plymouth audience that companies which want to take advantage of forthcoming employment and training legislation and free themselves of the restraints of statutory training requirements will have to think hard about how they can maintain standards.
Saying the Government preferred voluntary co-operation to statutory compulsion, Mr Morrison warned: "But we are not going to let companies off the hook of statutory boards to slip back into inefficient training, skill shortages, and poaching. We want to capitalise on the successes of statutory boards, not waste them."
He insisted that any voluntary schemes will have to include a system which monitors skill shortages and other training needs, maintains appropriate training standards, and involves sufficient liaision with trade unions and educational bodies.
Mr Morrison urged all employers to make their future plans known to the Manpower Services Commission as soon as possible, so that early action can be taken by Employment Secretary Jim Prior, and, hinting at the attitude of recession-blinded employers, he added: "Employers must look, not for the softest, cheapest option, but for the one which will deliver the goods effectively."